Austrian plum cake

Many people, mostly Americans that I can speak for, love traveling but complain about the lack of time or money. Some people quit their jobs and travel for months or years at a time. For most people that hold regular jobs in America, travel means a mere 3 weeks of vacation (more or less). I wish to travel but forever feel limited in resources one way or the other. So I thought, if a person is not traveling for the most part of a year, why not try living each day as if one was on an adventure? If the reason for traveling is to escape your present day life, then it makes more the sense to treat each day as if you were on a trip somewhere. Make the changes you on things you drags you down in a day. And if you travel because you just love the adventure, then do it in small little ways each day. Discover new flowers along the path that you walk on, park in a different spot at work, change the grocery you shop in, learn a new word in a new language, meet someone from a different country (bless America for making this so easy), or cook a meal that you’ve never eaten before.

This is just what we did yesterday. Mom planted a plum tress which bloomed and harvested this year in the garden. Even though they were delicious eaten as is. Peter found one of his favorite Austrian dessert recipes in English online for a plum cake. The recipe is basically the same as a pound cake recipe. Yes, the amount of butter that went into that little cake is shocking. Julia child would be proud of me. When the batter is prepared, layer a thin layer onto a cake mold or in our case a tart pan, then line the top with cored plums face up. Bake for 30 minutes and voila! The plums turned orange and sizzle in their own juices. The green plums could break a jaw but Peter loved it. A little dust of powered sugar helps. Letting sit for a day or so surprisingly made the plums less tart.

Along the way, I learned how to say mehl, oel, zucker, butter, kuchen. All the important German words I need to know before I sign myself up in an Austrian pastry school. And in one night, I tasted my first Austrian pastry all in my own little kitchen.